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on; the constitution. 



M - ;.-. Editor! — Will you bo so kind m to allow the following 
imunc tt i< >r> a place in jrour paper: 

Iii a loading article of the Union, some weeks lioce, Mr. l . the 

liberty to place nay name in ■ false ao I obnoxious juxtaposition vrith Mr. 
Charles (/Conner, the modern Democratic defender of Blavery, and b 
charge me with affirming — " That it is the duty of the citizens of 
York, to enforce upon other communities, regardless of statutt laws or con- 
stitutions, the doctrines of the Declaration o) Independence /" I wi 
i M'nl reply, requesting the privilege of placing myself, and of defining 
my awn position, but the magnanrm ins editor neither publishes, or returns 
my answer, as requested to do. So much for " fre i disc ission" and " fair 
play" in that quarter. Bui to the charge: I have never held or ad\ 
any BUCh I nctrines or views as were attributed to me by Mr. Butts. I do 
hold and affirm, however, that the Declaration of Independence eral 
the great Prima.! Law of all societies and governments; and I would 
use all moral and legitimate means to induce all peoples to accept and con- 
form to this Primal Law io all their civic relations and duti*-. Bo much 
for '• other i-<"ii inanities." 1 bold and atlirm further, that the doctrine 
contained in the Declaration of Independence, is not only the "chief cor- 
ner 81006," l»iu the great ami immovable rook upon which our Republican 
edifice was built. The founders of this Government, incorporated into, 
and interwove throughout the whole superstructure, the sacred doctrine of 
Personal Liberty and Equal Rights ; declaring in their organic act, that 
"No Prrsom shall be deprived of Life, Liberty or Proj>ert>/, without 
process of law, That the ri<*ht of the People to be secure in their P< 
and property shall not be violated;" that the Unil 5 - shall guaran- 
tee U> every State in the Union, a Republican form of GoVerment; "to 
every person a Bpeedy and public trial by an impartial jury," the prt^ 
of the writ of habeas corpus, "and the Right of the citiasns of 
to oil the privileges and immunities of citizens in the Beveral States" — 
affirming that this constitution and laws of the United Stan 9, which shall 
be mad.- in pursuance thereof, " shall be the Sotrbiu Law oi not Land." 
They proclaim to the world in the most positive terms, tb •' this 

Supreme Law, viz: " To form a more perfect Union — to establish j 
— to ensure domestic tranquility — provide for tbe common rf*^mce— pro- 
mote the general welfare — and secure the blessings of Liberty — (not the 
of Slavery) — to ourselves and posterity." What language could 
express with more irresistible power or clearness, the just and ei ilted pur- 

for which our Federal Constitution and Union were formed.' What 

could more forcibly entrench and fortify the principles of I 
annihilate the claims of Slavery? Now, what I atlirm is, that it is the 
duty of the people, and the Government composing the Confederacy, (for 
re one u community" standing together on the same common platform 
of principles) — to carry out and enforce their own organic ici —I i 

serve and honor their OWH Sui'RSMB Law — MCredly guarding and pr. 

hag those natural, admitted and clearly specified rights, which they pro- 
nounce •"inalienable," and thus maintain the justaud noble ends t'or which 
the "solemn compacts' 1 were entered into, and this "Glorious Union" 
formed. There are no "statute laws' 1 or " constitutions" against such 
enforcement — as I shall prove. But, if there xcerc such, they would not be 



"Slaves cannot breathe in England ! 
If their lungi receive our air, that moment they are free 
They touch our country, and their shackles fall! 
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud, 
And jealnus of the blessing." 

Did the slaveholders get the right to transform men into property, from the Federal 
Constitution? Nowhere from the beginning to the end of that glorious Charter of 
Liberty, is any such power given. That Supreme Law " was ordained, as I have be- 
fore shown, to establish justice, and secure the blessing of Life, Liberty, Property, and 
the pursuit of happiness" — not the blighting curse of Slavery. General Wilson, of 
Pa., a member of the Federal Convention which framed the Constitution, said: 
" That Constitution lays the foundation for banishing Slavery out of the Country." Said 
Patrick Henry — speaking of the Constitution : ''Ttiat paper speaks to the point — it 
pronounces all slaves free!" He went further, and declared that " Congress had the 
power to abolish Slavery, and would certainly exercise that power." The men who 
made the Constitution, and the statesmen of that day, had not discovered the power 
which modern " Democrats" pretend to find in the Constitution — to carry Slavery not 
only into the Territories, but into the Free States! Old Gov. Randolph, held that 
" those unfortunate men," (not "things") "then held in bondage, would be made 
free by the operation of the General Government." Said "Wilson— and I need quote 
no further or higher authority on this subject: " The reserved rights of the States in- 
clude no such right as that of holding property in man, as no such right can exist ! 
And that the Federal Convention would not permit the Constitution to recognize any 
such right!" Where, then, do slaveholders, and their northern sycophauts, get this 
assumed " right of property in man ?" Nowhere. It is a base assumption— a hum- 
bug ! Ask the piratical slave trader whence came Slavery ? and let the revolting- 
scenes, and horrid cruelties of the diabolical traffic in "flesh and souls of men " 
answer! By violence! by brute force! by — 

" Man's inhurranity to man, 
"Which makes its countless thousands mourn." 

The O'Connor's — the Brooks' and the Butts' with the effrontery of their Tory prede- 
cessors — the Filmer's — the Laud's and the Jeffries' — may come to the rescue of this 
atrocious system. Still the great fact remains— in the nature of things — in the sense 
of mankind— in the history of the world, and in the history and Constitution of this 
Government, that Slavery is an Outlaw — a Pirate, existing against natural justice 
and the moral law — without charter — grant — State legislative enactment or Constitu- 
tional guarantee — having no rights but to die. What then, do these Northern dough- 
faced politicians mean, when they talk of " Southern rights?" Are Eights sectional? 
Does the Constitution confer exclusive rights upon any portion of the country? Have 
the South rights which the North have not? No, it is not Southern Rights for which 
these demagogues ask immunity, but for Southern wrongs. Is it for Slavery ? Nobody 
proposes, or thinks of disturbing Southern Rights; and all this "shrieking" about 
" guarantees " — " compromises," and the preservation of our " glorious Union," mean 
simply to screen the hideousness of Slavery, and the rottenness of its supple ally — the 
Sham Democracy, and to save both, if possible, from the impending doom which awaits 
them. If these men would spend a little of that breath in opposing the false and 
monstrous assumptions and aggressions of the slave-power, they would render their 
country, and the cause of Freedom, a real service. The country does not need, nor 
can it be benefited by any such untempered daubing, and our " Union," and the In- 
stitutions of the country generally, would "run" well enough, as everybody knows, 
were it not for slavery. With that foreign and irritating element clashing among the 
cogwheels of its machinery, it can never run smoothly. Freedom and Slavery — Free 
labor and Slave labor — Free society and Slave society are natural and eternal antag- 
onisms. They can never co-exist, co-operate and harmonise together, making a peace- 
ful, happy and prosperous community. Every element — every condition — every in- 
terest and every demand of the one is diametrically opposed to, and in perpetual and 
" irrepressible conflict '' with the other. He is the true friend of this " Union," and he 
is the true "statesman" Mr. Butts, who would abolish Slavery, and thus preserve and 
maintain the Great Primal law of the Nation, and labor to secure to every person the 
unalienable right to " Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." " Yuat pure, then 
peaceable" is as true and sound a philosophy for the Slate as for the Church. 

" The perils of the free 
All spring from one unhappy blot, — 
The taint of Slavery I 
That, that is what you have to dread ! 
Get rid of that, and— go ahead 1" 

Respectfully Tours, - 

Rochester, N. Y., March 20th, I860. GEORGE W. CLARK. g^ 




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